


Classification

by Yrindor



Category: Naruto
Genre: Classified Information, Gen, Illnesses, Kekkei Genkai | Bloodline Limit, Kikaichuu | Parasitic Insects, Weird Biology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23338294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: For most medic-nin, their work is fairly straightforward--broken bones and sprained ankles don't change too terribly much from one shinobi to another.  For the most skilled healers, things are more complicated.  What happens when kekkei genkai cause non-standard physiology?  What about when the information they need to develop a treatment plan is directly related to bloodline techniques and thus highly classified?
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Tsunade
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45
Collections: Worldbuilding Exchange 2020





	Classification

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sheliak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheliak/gifts).



Sakura knocked on the door to the Hokage's office. "Tsunade, do you have a minute?"

"Enter," Tsunade called. "What is it? Make it quick. The Elders are demanding reports on every aspect of the village by this afternoon."

"It wouldn't be so bad if you kept up with them on a regular basis," Shizune cut in from her spot in the corner. "We go through this every year. If you filed them when they arrived, you wouldn't be trying to do it all last minute."

"When am I supposed to find the time for that!? I can't exactly put up a 'doing paperwork; come back later' sign on the door when ANBU needs to report on an escaped prisoner, and the Academy instructors need a signature to authorize replacing the third broken window this week, and there are new S-rank missions to assign, and reports from the leaders of the new genin teams, and so forth and so on. What I really need is an assistant who will do all of the filing for me and not just stand in the corner offering pointed commentary?"

Shizune smirked. "You say that now, but you know you wouldn't make it a week with someone like that around."

Tsunade sighed. "Please tell me you have a good reason for being here, Sakura, and if you can do something for this headache, I might even resist the urge to bite off your head."

"I'm coming from the hospital," Sakura said as she crossed the room to Tsunade's desk. She didn't break her report even as she set her hands to Tsunade's temples, evaluated the tightness and knots causing Tsunade's headache, and eased her own chakra through her hands to loosen them. "Aburame Shino recently returned from a mission to the Land of Waves. It appears he contracted a previously unknown disease during that time. Initial tests have ruled out bacterial or parasitic origins. We're still waiting on the last of the results from the lab, but it's looking like a virus."

"I assume you have him properly quarantined?"

"Yes, although we believe the risk of transmission to the general population is very low."

"How is he? You wouldn't be here if there weren't complications."

Sakura nodded. "Fatigue, low-grade fever, general malaise--at first glance, nothing too serious or unexpected for a mild viral infection."

"But?"

"It appears the virus is targeting the parasitic insects more than it is targeting his body. That's an unknown, but he's beginning to show instability in his chakra network. So far only minor fluctuations, but they're increasing in frequency and magnitude. I looked in our reference library, but there's nothing there about the parasitic insects that isn't already common knowledge. Why do we have no information? Surely someone has studied how they work."

"It's a bloodline technique," Tsunade said.

"So?"

"Details of bloodline techniques are all highly classified information. You know that."

"How are we supposed to heal them then? Protecting the secrets of your bloodline techniques does you no good at all if the bloodline dies out because you didn't tell the medics how to heal you! What are--"

Tsunade cut Sakura off with a raised hand. "The information exists, but it's highly classified and access is on a need-to-know basis to select individuals only."

"Great. How do I get access?"

Tsunade sighed. "You've made it high enough up the hospital ranks it's probably time. There's a second library containing information on every bloodline technique we know. As the head of a medical team, you can access materials pertaining to anatomic and physiologic aspects of kekkei genkai. Requests must be submitted in writing and signed by both the Hokage and the current head of the bloodline in question, or the acting head in cases where the head is absent or incapacitated. Depending on the bloodline, additional restrictions may apply, but you're in luck. The Aburame are decidedly more relaxed about that than some of the other bloodlines."

"Do you have a pen?" Sakura asked, already pulling a blank scroll from her belt. In her head, she had already composed the message. A minute later, and she had the entire thing written out and ready for the Hokage's signature. Her training in the hospital taught her the necessity of efficiency. It carried through to her writing, exactly as many words as necessary to convey the message, no space for extra pleasantries or frivolous turns of phrase.

Tsunade read over the message once before she signed it. "Shibi returned from his mission this morning. He may still be with Inoichi and Ibiki in their headquarters. His plan was to return to the Aburame compound as soon as he finished."

"I'll find him," Sakura said. "Don't go anywhere; I'll be right back." She rushed out of the room at just short of a run.

Her first stop was to the depths of the Torture and Interrogation Unit. Her rank gave her access to most of the building; valuable prisoners couldn't be allowed to die for lack of prompt medical care after all.

She found Ibiki and Inoichi surrounded by scrolls and charts in their usual office, but Shibi was notably absent.

"He went home," Inoichi said. "Shino's supposed to be back today. He wanted to surprise him."

Sakura shook her head. "Shino's back," she said. "He's in the hospital."

Inoichi looked to Ibiki, concern creasing his brow. "Injured?" he asked.

"Sick. Unknown virus."

"How serious?" Ibiki asked.

"Stable so far, but I need Shibi to sign off on an information release. The infection appears to be targeting the parasitic insects."

A look flashed between Inoichi and Ibiki. A second later, Ibiki nodded almost imperceptibly.

"I'll notify Shikaku," Inoichi said. His face went blank, Ibiki stopping him from falling from his chair as he used the Yamanaka mind-transfer jutsu.

"If there are references in the Nara medical texts, you'll hear about it," Ibiki said.

"He's looking now," Inoichi said a few seconds later. "He'll meet you at the hospital. Let him see Shino if he requests it; Shibi won't object."

"Speaking of which, I need to find Shibi now," Sakura said.

A medic knocked at the open door. One of the new recruits, and clearly not at ease this far beyond the hospital. Even under his loose uniform, Sakura could see his knees shaking.

"Report," Sakura demanded.

"Aburame Shino destabilizing. Chakra fluctuations are beginning to cause feedback loops."

"Is he in a circle?"

"No, ma'am."

"Do it now. Medics at all four cardinal points. Focus on stabilization only for now. Notify the Hokage and request Shizune; she's a master at chakra control. Dismissed."

The medic saluted and left the building at a run. Sakura grabbed her scroll and turned to follow.

"Haruno, wait," Ibiki ordered.

"No time. We could lose Shino if we don't act quickly."

"The Aburame compound is on the outskirts of the village. Like you said, there's not time."

"I need Shibi's signature," Sakura countered

Ibiki's eyes darted to Inoichi.

"On it," Inochi said before slumping forward again.

Sakura resisted the urge to fidget. It was one thing for Inoichi to pop into the mind of one of his closest friends and colleagues. It was entirely different, or so she presumed, to show up uninvited in one of the more private and secretive of Konoha's shinobi.

"Scroll," Inoichi rasped in a voice that wasn't entirely his own, but wasn't entirely foreign either. He sat upright slowly, like a man still trying to get used to his body.

Sakura slid the scroll across the table.

Inoichi signed it with a shaky hand. _Aburame Shibi_

"Is that valid?" Sakura asked as Inoichi collapsed over the page.

Ibiki nodded. "Signed by Shibi himself, albeit through a conduit."

Inoichi shook his head slowly as he sat up. A thin sheen of sweat covered his face, and he was pale enough to cause Sakura a moment of concern.

"You're losing your touch," Ibiki chided. "Time was you could've done a half-dozen mind-body transfers across the village without breaking a sweat."

"Still could, if it weren't for the damned kikaichuu," Inoichi said, taking the glass of tea Ibiki pushed toward him. "Can't link to an Aburame without linking to their kikaichuu, and as soon as you do, they start drawing off of your chakra too. Aburame bodies are adapted for them. We, most definitely, are not."

Sakura reached over to touch Inoichi's forehead with a gentle brush of her own chakra. Fatigued and depleted, but not dangerously so. He would spring back soon enough. "Don't let him overdo it," Sakura ordered Ibiki. "I'll be at the hospital."

"Shibi's on his way," Inoichi said. "Shikaku knows where you're going; he'll make sure Shibi gets there. If you can't find what you need in the books, ask them."

Sakura nodded before grabbing the scroll and running out of the room. The medics knew what they were doing. Shizune knew what she was doing. As long as the messenger remembered to ask her, they would keep Shino stable for the time she needed.

She sprinted past the guards at the entrance of the Hokage's building. They made no move to stop her. Then knew her, and they knew that if she was sprinting into the building, there was a problem. They'd learned the hard way not to hinder her. She ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

She rounded the corner into the final hallway and nearly ran into the Hokage herself running in the opposite direction.

"I have the signature," Sakura said, fumbling the scroll from her belt without breaking stride.

"With me," Tsunade ordered. "Report from Shizune. Shino in critical condition. She has him stable for now, but it's a challenge. We're fighting the clock."

"Shibi and Shikaku are on their way here," Sakura said. "Inoichi helped," she added when Tsunade cocked an eyebrow in her direction.

"If you don't find the answers you need, Shizune suggested tapping the Hyuuga for their knowledge of chakra flows. Hope it doesn't come to. You want a headache? Try getting bloodline-adjacent information out of a Hyuuga."

Sakura followed Tsunade down flight after flight of stair to the lowest level of the building. At the end of the hall, Tsunade wove a complicated string of handsigns before a seemingly solid wall. From somewhere deep inside, a latch clicked, and the wall swung open to reveal a narrow staircase that led even farther underground.

"Everything you see in here is classified at the highest level," Tsunade said as they descended. "I don't need to tell you to be discrete. Treatment plans you develop on the basis of information contained here are not classified so long as they contain only treatment information; however, any information you read here that you wish to share with the medical team must be cleared by the acting head of the family first. The Aburame are less strict in their requirements, but some families insist that such details be wiped from the memories of the medical staff once treatment is completed."

"And we agree to that?"

"If you want to the be the one responsible for a Hyuuga head family member succumbing to their injuries while you argue with Hiashi, be my guest," Tsunade said.

Sakura winced. "Even you?" she asked.

"I pick my battles. I choose not to look at certain information in the first place. Should a situation ever arise that no one else can handle, Hiashi will have to choose."

The stairs ended, opening out into a room that bore remarkable resemblance to the library in the hospital, though the latter did not have heavy seals pulsing on every shelf.

"Everything in here is organized by family," Tsunade explained. "The two signatures on your scroll will unlock the seal for the specific materials you need. Touching anything else will set off an alarm and a chakra trap that will capture the intruder until ANBU can respond. Unless it is otherwise specified, permissions are for one-time use only, so make sure you have what you need before you return the materials. Nothing in here can be copied or removed from the room. The same chakra seals that mediate access to the materials will check for any form of recording or listening jutsu or other bug prior to opening. The material is too sensitive, and too valuable in the wrong hands, to take the risk."

By the time Tsunade finished speaking, they had made it to the far end of the room to the shelves labeled "Aburame." Sakura set the scroll over the seal. Bright lines of chakra flowed out from the center in concentric rings, symbols flowing from the scroll, over the shelves, and finally over her hands and down her arms. A moment later, they returned the way they had come, converging back onto the seal before disappearing entirely.

Two shelves now stood open before her, one of scrolls, and another of bound volumes of varying sizes. She skimmed the labels, selecting a few that seemed the most promising.

When she turned to bring them to a table to read, she nearly ran into Shikaku. "Don't sneak up on a person like that!" she said.

Shikaku shrugged, the same nonchalant gesture she was used to seeing from Shikamaru. He held out a scroll. "Don't know if it'll be helpful, but I copied everything we have related to kikaichuu."

"You work fast."

"Time is lives in intelligence. Shibi's at the hospital. They won't let him inside the isolation area, but he's observing and providing guidance for the stabilization. Shizune has it under control for now, but if you don't have a solution by the time she fatigues, we'll be in trouble."

Sakura looked to Tsunade.

"Four hours," Tsunade said in reply to the silent question. "Possibly as many as ten, but unlikely given the complexities described."

"Then let's do this," Sakura said, pulling back her hair before she distributed the volumes on the table.

The first two volumes and one of the scrolls proved disappointing, focusing more on the methods of utilizing kikaichuu than on their specific physiology. She didn't have high hopes for the last scroll either; it looked like it had not been well cared for for a significant period of its life, and the label wrapped around it helpfully read "Kikaichuu Basics." If she couldn't find what she needed, she'd be forced to make her best guesses and hope for the best.

She wanted to avoid that plan.

She unrolled the scroll. At the top of the page was an anatomic diagram of a body, minutely detailed, painstakingly constructed, and completely out of proportion. She began to read.

> Kikaichuu, or parasitic insects, are a bloodline trait unique to the Aburame clan. Over time, the insects have developed a symbiotic relationship with their human hosts. The insects are only a few millimeters long, but the average host can support thousands to tens of thousands of the creatures. The kikaichuu feed off of the chakra of their hosts, and in return, they allow their host to use them for scouting or attacking. While the kikaichuu do not cause harm to their hosts' chakra networks, their parasitic nature allows them to incapacitate others by draining their chakra reserves or disrupting chakra flow.

Nothing new so far, Sakura thought as she unrolled the next portion of the scroll. There needed to be something in here; they were running out of time.

> Due to the volume of kikaichuu, and the host's role as an energy source, Aburame anatomy and physiology has undergone several notable changes. First, since the kikaichuu are their primary weapon and form of defense, the Aburame have less need for significant muscular strength. On average, the muscle mass of an Aburame is only twenty-five to fifty percent that of other shinobi. The decreased muscle volume allows more space for the insects within the body. It also decreases the oxygen requirements of the body, which along with the shift away from a taijutsu-focused style has led to corresponding changes in the respiratory and circulatory systems as well. The lungs of an Aburame shinobi average half normal size, again allowing greater empty space within the chest cavity for the insects. The circulatory system sees a corresponding, though less dramatic, drop in volume.
> 
> In contrast, the chakra network of the Aburame shows significant expansion, even greater than that of the Hyuuga. Instead of a discrete network of channels and nodes, the center of the thoracic cavity is occupied by a single large node, or more accurately, a pool of chakra in which the kikaichuu can exist and move freely without the confines of the standard chakra network. Moving out toward the extremities, the chakra network begins to take on its more standard appearance. Special pores on the skin similar to those of the Hyuuga allow for release of the kikaichuu.
> 
> Perhaps the most notable aspect of Aburame physiology is the sheer scale of chakra flowing through their chakra network. The amount of chakra required to maintain a full complement of kikaichuu is multiple times that of the average shinobi. In fact, the changes in chakra management among the Aburame are so significant that it is difficult for an Aburame to maintain control of their chakra should they suddenly find themselves without their parasitic insects. All Aburame are trained in at least the basics of chakra control; however, those without advanced training on the subject will begin to to show signs of overloading and stress in their chakra network within four to six hours of loss of their kikaichuu.

Sakura stopped reading and looked up sharply. Tsunade had left sometime while she was reading, but Shikaku was still present. "How long since Shino began showing symptoms?" she asked.

"I believe he began showing symptoms shortly before leaving the Land of Waves; it's why he pushed his departure back a day earlier than planned. At a moderate rate of travel, the return trip would have taken about twelve hours."

"I need to get to the hospital. Shizune needs to know we're likely dealing with an _excess_ of chakra, not a deficiency. Our normal techniques for stabilization could be disastrous under those conditions."

"Go," Shikaku ordered. "I'll reshelve these. I have the clearance so long as they're closed."

Sakura tied the scroll shut before pushing away from the table. "Thank you," she said as she sprinted for the stairs. She could see the shape of the problem now. She saw how to treat it too. She just had to make it in time.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Worldbuilding Exchange! I've always been fascinated by medicine in the world of Naruto, so this was a fun chance to dive deeper into exploring it.


End file.
